Top Israeli Official’s Facebook, Twitter Accounts Hacked

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A group of pro-Palestinian hackers apparently managed to hack the social networking accounts of Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and has promised to release a trove of the top official’s private emails.

Though the Israeli government now appears to have regained control of the accounts, screenshots posted on various news outlets overnight show Shalom’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts plastered with pro-Palestinian messages. An official at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed the hacking incident.

A group calling itself ZCompanyHackingCrew (ZHC) boasted about the hack on Twitter and claimed it had also accessed Shalom’s personal email account where they stole “his contacts, docs [documents], and some other interesting stuff.” The group said it plans to release them online “very soon.”

ZHC specified that it is not part of the loose hacking collective Anonymous, which has declared its own cyber war against Israel.

The messages purportedly posted by the hackers have been deleted from Shalom’s Facebook and Twitter and the deputy prime minister has apparently not made public statements with either account since the incident.

Shalom did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this report.